CARYL CRANE CLOTHING STORE
This building was constructed in 1878 but modernized in 1955 when its façade was covered with green porcelain panels. The building was best known as the home of the Caryl Crane clothing store, which operated here from 1946 until relocating to the Sandusky Mall in the late 1970s. Next to the women’s’ store was a men’s store, Byer Bros.
Caryl Crane, 1949. On the far left you can see a portion of LaSalles building and sign. Next to that is Byer Bros. Store for Men, Caryl Crane, and the long building on the right is J. C. Penney which took up the corner of Columbus and Market St. Image courtesy of Sandusky Library Archives Research Center
There is a great article on Caryl Crane on the Sandusky Library History Blog HERE.
In October of 1954, the Byer Brothers moved to their new store at 129 Columbus Avenue in the Wilke building. The new location was triple the floor space of its previous location which had also been located on Columbus Avenue.
J C PENNEY – In August of 1974, J. C. Penney announced its plans to open a new store at the planned Sandusky Mall, and its downtown store closed when the mall store opened in the late 1970s. After the closure of J.C. Penney its building remained vacant, and in December 1981 the Sandusky city government agreed to purchase both the former Penney’s building as well as the Gray Drug building for one dollar. The city additionally purchased the Graham-Ritter Building in 1984.
In 1991, that building and two others were demolished. Now it is the site of the Erie County Parking Garage, a joint Sandusky-Erie County project that opened to the public in 1996.
Our Thanks to Deb Neese Voltz for this bit of history: ROSA BEE STORE (year later known as CARYL CRANE)-Specialized in ladies’ ready to wear clothing & opened at 245 Columbus Ave (Ritter Block) in April of 1945. Only lasted here a short while till they sold it to Hyman Shiff & his sister Caryl Crane of Lorain in January 1946. Some things I never knew… Caryl graduated from Ohio State University and was a former music teacher in Lorain public schools. Spent 7 1/2 years with the Natl. Broadcasting Co in NYC. Also managed stores for Lerner & Jonas and had been a district supt. of the Darling Dress Shops! Her brother graduated from Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, was a credit & ad manager of the F. S. Fashion & Day Stores in NYC before enlisting in the U.S. Air Corp in 1942 ranking as Capt. earning a Bronze Star & the Croix DeGuerre w/Silver Star issued by the French Govt.! Their father Isaac owned & operated one of the leading jewelry stores in Lorain for 40 years. Caryl’s given name was Fannie Shiff but legally changed it to Caryl Crane as her voice coach in NY gave her that name cause she thought she needed a stage name! At the time she was singing at Carnegie Hall with the NY Philharmonic Orchestra for the GM program and even appeared on Broadway in musicals & in Radio City Music Hall…. no wonder she & her brother were involved with the Miss Ohio-Miss America pageants for eight years seeing Jackie Mayer become Miss America.
In 1980 after being downtown for 30 years, they moved the business to the Sandusky Mall citing the times were changing, the downtown hours were not what the public wanted and “parking was a big problem.” Caryl was known as Sandusky’s “first lady of fashion” and she lived up to that name as many patronized her store over the years! (note prior to them moving to the Mall they expanded the business into the building formerly occupied by Byer Bros back in February 1947; a remodeling took place in 1955 with the grey-green porcelain covering the brick on the building… She sold the Mall store in Sept 1983 to Mr & Mrs Taylor from Norwalk.
